School consolidation fight gears up

Decision from state superintendent of education expected by mid-July

Scott Cousins, scousins@civitasmedia.com

Published
10:24 pm CDT, Thursday, June 30, 2016

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WOOD RIVER — While both sides on the consolidation question for the East Alton-Wood River High School and two feeder elementary districts are waiting for a final decision on a proposed November referendum, they are also gearing up for what is expected to be a heated campaign.

State Superintendent of Education Tony Smith is expected to make a final decision on whether the referendum will be on the Nov. 8 ballot sometime in the next few weeks.

Supporters are attempting to force a consolidation of the East Alton-Wood River High School, Wood River-Hartford Elementary and East Alton Elementary School District. If approved this will be the third time the issue will have been on the ballot since 2011.

The referendum pits pro-consolidation “Citizens for a Better Education” against anti-consolidation group “Save Our Schools 2016.”

“We’re going to do a campaign door-to-door,” said consolidation proponent Chuck Johansen.

He said they plan to start in July “even before we hear from Springfield.”

Opponent Charlie Hoffman said his side doesn’t have any specific plans yet.

“We will continue to fight them the same way we have the other times they have brought up this initiative,” he said, adding they will hold meetings and distribute yard signs and fliers. “The goal is to educate the public and have them ask the questions we always ask.”

A petition seeking consolidation was submitted to the Madison County Regional Office of Education in mid-May. A public hearing was held in mid-June and Regional Superintendent Robert Daiber approved and sent on the request 10 days later. Smith has until July 14 to act. A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said in an email that the petition “has been received and is under review.”

In 2015 voters narrowly turned down a similar proposition with a total vote of 931-939, and it was also defeated in a close vote in 2011.

At the public hearing proponents cited lower taxes and an improvement in the overall educational quality among the three separate districts.

Opponents cited numerous technical errors in the petition, also saying it would neither decrease taxes or improve education, as well as citing a lack of a specific plan or other details.

Johansen said there has been a “big push” of volunteers.

“People came to use and said they want to get this referendum passed,” he said.

One concern is voters in Hartford. In 2015 the referendum lost by a total vote of eight, but much of that was in the Hartford area because people were concerned about the possible fate of the Hartford Elementary School.

“We’re going to meet with them and try to persuade them to understand what this consolidation is all about,” Johansen said. “We’re not here to have anybody lose their jobs or close schools.”

Instead, he said the group is concerned about students being able go from pre-K to 12th grade in a single district, especially the transition from eighth to ninth grade.

“The eighth-graders are not prepared for ninth-grade level work,” he added.

Johansen said he expects a “hard-fought” campaign on both sides.

“I just wish the opponents would sit down and ask themselves why they are opposing this,” Johansen said. “Is it for money or better education? The system is broke, both financially and educationally, and needs to be fixed. The emphasis is on education.”

Hoffman said the opponents’ goal was to educate the public.

“The key for this go-around is going to be ‘give us a budget, give us a plan.’” We’ve always been asking for numbers,” he said. “We want the public to ask the same questions that we are.

“What galls most of our group is that they speak in warm and fuzzy terms, where we want to get down to concrete numbers,” he said. “We’re all concerned about education and what’s best for the kids, but we also have to think about what’s best for the entire community.”

Working from a volunteer contact list from 2015, he has sent out notices to supporters.

“We’re slowly ramping up,” Hoffman said. “We found over the last two times we done this, we found a lot of people who were not even aware it was on the ballot. We spend a lot of time trying to educate people.”